WASHINGTON – With yesterday’s announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it has arrested more than 150 men on charges that they forced underage young women into prostitution, Rabbinical Assembly Executive Vice President Rabbi Julie Schonfeld is available to discuss the religious community’s engagement in combating global human trafficking.

Rabbi Schonfeld is a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and leads the Rabbinical Assembly, the international umbrella organization for Conservative rabbis. Earlier this year, the Advisory Council released a report, Building Partnerships to Eradicate Modern-Day Slavery, making recommendations to President Barack Obama on how to eliminate modern-day slavery. The recommendations are available at the White House’s website.

“The FBI’s recent arrests of dozens of individuals involved with the prostitution of minors is a significant step in providing a voice to the courageous survivors of human trafficking, who too often go unheard, as well as the efforts of the many non-governmental organizations dedicated to ending this crime,” Schonfeld said.

The advisory council’s 10 recommendations lay out how faith-based and community organizations across the country can work together to end modern-day slavery, and to support the White House in expanding the growing number of modern-day abolitionists in every sector fighting modern-day slavery.

The Rabbinical Assembly is utilizing these recommendations to create a plan to call upon their 1,700 rabbis around the world to focus on the issue of human trafficking during the coming High Holy Days. The advisory council’s report calls upon all religious leaders to play an integral role in preventing trafficking by raising awareness, protecting survivors through comprehensive social services, and creating partnerships among civil society, state and local government, the private sector, and faith-based organizations to maximize resources and outcomes. Among the advisory council’s recommendations is the formation of a set of definitive standards that companies and industries should follow to eliminate slavery in supply chains.

The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. Since its founding in 1901, the Assembly has been the creative force shaping the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement, and is committed to building and strengthening the totality of Jewish life. Rabbis of the Assembly serve congregations throughout the world, and also work as educators, officers of communal service organizations, and college, hospital, and military chaplains. More information is available at www.rabbinicalassembly.org.